People with at least one copy of the HLA-B53 allele are better able to beat back

Question

People with at least one copy of the HLA-B53 allele are better able to beat back malarial infections before the infection progresses. If this is a coevolutionary arms race between Plasmodium and humans, what would the next step in this race be?.........A. to see humans with more than one copy of the HLA-B53 allele.........B. to see Plasmodium populations that counter the HLA-B53 allele.......C. to see humans without the HLA-B53 allele......D. to see Plasmodium populations that have the HLA-B53 allele

Explanation / Answer

B. To see Plasmodium populations that counter the HLA-B53 allele. If humans with 1 allele already have an advantage, the evolutionary ball is in Plasmodium's court to develop a defense to this. Having an extra copy of the allele does not guarantee a stronger defense against malaria (a). Losing the allele would just make humans more susceptible to the disease (B). Having a human allele makes no sense for Plasmodium (D).

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse P
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.